


Two's lonely, there's company in three

by seraf



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Acrobat!Lucifer, Acrobat!Michael, Fluff, Insecure Gadreel, M/M, Polyamory, circus AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:16:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5596000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraf/pseuds/seraf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael and Lucifer are acrobats, and Gadreel is unaware of this, until they invite him to their show.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two's lonely, there's company in three

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Omano](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Omano/gifts).



He had been told that he needed to see the show, though he wasn’t yet sure of why, Lucifer and Michael simply sharing - he wouldn’t exactly mark Michael as devious, but Lucifer certainly was, his grins making Gadreel almost fear for his very life. Nevertheless, he had agreed - from what he understood of the two, not that they let on to much, they had some employment there. He had assumed that it was just for this show in particular - working to help set up, or at the snack bar, or something similar. Which had been justified when he had walked in and seen Lucifer, looking - more innocuous than Lucifer had any right to, standing behind a popcorn machine and giving him a winning smile. Gadreel noticed, with a raised eyebrow, that his feet were bare. When Lucifer noticed Gadreel looking, he slid one of his feet behind his ankle, and offered the other a coy smile.

“Thank you for coming.” Despite the oddness, despite the amount he had been smirking for the past - two weeks? now, Lucifer sounded genuine, and it startled Gadreel some. Lucifer let a thin smile creep up the side of his face at whatever Gadreel’s reaction had apparently been to that. “Don’t worry. You should be fine, at least.” He tipped forwards, leaning on the bar in front of him. “Anything I can get you?”

Gadreel ordered a popcorn, even though he had never really been fond of it. If the people at this show had to deal with both Lucifer and Michael, the least he could do was recompense in this way. He stepped to the side and looked around, tipping his head to the side, and Lucifer came to join him, leaving somebody else to fill his position - who didn’t actually look bothered by the fact Lucifer was arbitrarily leaving his shift. Odd. “Where’s Michael?” he asked the blonde. Lucifer shrugged evasively. “He’s helping put up lights and such inside.” It wasn’t a good lie, not for Lucifer, and Gadreel narrowed his eyes. The other man mocked offense, raising his arms in the air. “You don’t believe me? I’m hurt, Gadreel. We both know I’m a paragon of virtue and honesty.” The latter phrase was breathed against his jaw, and despite himself, Gadreel shivered lightly.

“You are a paragon of many things. Virtue not being one of them,” he answered, extracting himself from where Lucifer had draped an arm around his waist with no small amount of difficulty. Lucifer laughed quietly, slipping his hands into his pockets, and checked his watch, before pressing a kiss to the other’s cheek.

“Fair enough. As much as I’d like to stay here with you, I do have to run.” He didn’t give Gadreel enough time to ask where he was going, slipping back through closed doors and leaving him behind, bewildered.

He decided to make his way to his seat, wondering again how, even if Michael and Lucifer did work for the show, how they had managed to afford a front-row seat for him. There was no way every stage hand and snack bar worker could get tickets for their significant others. Even if two of them had the same significant other, which - might be hard to explain to those outside. He would have found it odd, himself, were it not the position he had landed in so abruptly. 

Anyway.

The show began with a literal bang, music and lights that nearly blasted Gadreel back in his seat, his popcorn placed ever-so-carefully on the floor after that. It was nearly overwhelming, with groups of people flooding the stage, decked in similar outfits and flipping and marching in time - he wasn’t sure what to track with his eyes, and, try as he might, he couldn’t make out the gender of most of the people on stage - decked out in colorful outfits and face paint that rendered them all androgynous to his eyes. He supposed it added to the surreal effect - nobody could make any judgement based on gender or race of the performers if both were hidden behind thick paint and sequins.

By the second act, his hands ached from clapping so hard and so much, watching performers dressed in blue and gold and green spin each other around floating platforms, one with feathered hair twirling in seeming free fall, their waist connected with a thin wire to a loop that was held in another person’s teeth, both of them smiling beatifically, even as they spun and contorted themselves into positions Gadreel hadn’t known were possible for the human body to bend into. 

The second had been something with more rock-style music, a handful of men, their outfits less androgynous, spinning on children’s bikes and flipping between platforms that slowly and steadily rose into the air, as well as picking members out of the audience and asking them to lie down, while they jumped over them on the miniature vehicles, twisting in the air as they did so. It was wonderful, and it was absurd, and Gadreel couldn’t really see why he was here.

Of course, it was beautiful, and he was glad that he had been asked, but he didn’t see why Lucifer and Michael had acted so suspicious around the time of it. Maybe there had been a mistake, and he was supposed to have been one of the audience members called up onto the stage to perform in the acts, and it just hadn’t happened yet. Maybe, maybe, maybe - he likely wasn’t going to know until it happened, so he might as well sit back and enjoy the rest of the show, even if he did it a little bit tense.

The third act passed without event - at least nothing that heightened Gadreel’s suspicion.

With the fourth, the faint light that had been illuminating the crowd faded entirely with the applause, leaving them all in total darkness, and the music turned more slow and mournful. When a single spotlight fell on the stage, Gadreel saw that there had been fog cast across it, and the single spotlight gave it an eerie effect, one single point of light. The light blinked out again, and a confused murmur rippled across the crowd for a fraction of a second - the amount of time it took for the light to swell again, the spot of light there, but also dim elsewhere, and there was a collective gasp.

Where there had been no one before, and no sign of a door opening or one of the platforms rising to let a performer out, there was now a crouched form in the center of the spotlight, fingers digging into his shoulder blades. They were wearing all white, a thin gossamer fabric that fluttered in an unfelt wind, that curved in complicated patterns around their arms and legs, and from what Gadreel could see of his hands and collarbones, there were ornate silver patterns painstakingly brushed around his fingertips and the rest of his skin, some of them showing through the thin material.

When he stood up, one leg extended behind him in graceful position, and his face cast downwards, letting the light illuminate the flowing silver patterns across his face and neck, Gadreel couldn’t help but let out another tiny gasp.

It was Lucifer.

Who evidently had heard him, because one corner of his mouth turned up in a smile so imperceptible that nobody not looking for it would have seen it, before extending his arms behind him in some quiet mockery of wings, and bending forwards, as if bowing to the crowd. The leg pushed behind him drew forwards, bare feet sliding against the painted wood of the stage, and Lucifer’s arms drifted to rest beneath his hips, folded together. He looked very nearly serene, bent in something that looked like prayer, and then his arms drew apart, the music hitting a crescendo. And the crowd inhaled once again. 

In between Lucifer’s hands, tail coiled delicately around one of his wrists, was a black snake, head tilted towards the man as if it were curious about him. In his other hand, Lucifer held it right beneath the head, keeping it from biting him. And ever so slowly, he let go of the snake’s head, leaving it drawn out, tail tightly wrapped around his right hand.

And he bowed, kneeling slowly, eyes still locked with the reptile. The snake - Gadreel didn’t know much about snakes, but he could swear this one looked content, as it curled close to Lucifer’s skin, coiling first around his upper arm, then his neck, coming to rest his head at the hollow of Lucifer’s throat. When it was - secure, Gadreel supposed, Lucifer began to perform, slow and stately and many things that Gadreel wasn’t able to typically associate with Lucifer, and it fascinated him. 

The snake seemed to dance with Lucifer, coming to wrap around his throat and sway above his head as he lowered himself into a split, wrapping around his waist and turning as he rolled across the floor, and sitting curled on the small of his back as he angled himself perpendicular to the floor, one foot stretched above his head.

It was beautiful, but - it seemed less intense than some of the things that had happened in the show thus far.

Then, Lucifer walked into the middle of the stage, with the snake resting as a black collar around his neck, and pulled down on a wire that Gadreel hadn’t noticed before, and a red silk curtain fell into the center of the stage. 

Gadreel, frankly, wasn’t surprised as he should have been when Michael walked in, shirtless and shoeless, in a pair of simple black pants, and took hold of the curtain, wrapping it firmly around his hand. Unlike Lucifer, he wasn’t wearing much intricate makeup at all. However, it did surprise him - he knew Michael did have two tattoos, and they weren’t covered up at all. If anything, they were enhanced. There was a set of wings across his back and shoulders, darker than the snake resting at Lucifer’s collarbone, and a series of characters underneath his neck.  They seemed magnified, now, underneath the lights of the stage.

Lucifer and Michael bowed to each other, Michael’s hand still white-knuckled around the curtain, a foot or so above his head, and then Michael tugged upwards and pushed off with seeming effortlessness, body forming a taut line, and the red tail of the curtain billowed behind him, a mockery of red wings. Michael’s face was stoic as he flew in a circle around the stage, coming to a running stop, before tugging himself upwards, manipulating the curtain with his legs as he went so it looped around his hips, and he twisted upwards, ascending slowly with flips and pulling on the curtain, until Gadreel was looking at Michael suspended about fifty feet in the air, twisting and folding and suspended only by the sleek silk round his waist.

Lucifer seemed stilled at the moment, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, the snake making its course around his form, watching Michael with a calculated eye and the hint of a smile.

Suddenly, Michael tumbled, arms by his sides and legs straight out, practically falling down the length of red fabric with the speed he was turning. He stopped, only about six feet from the floor, just as abruptly, crooking one of his legs and floating, caught in stasis, the red silk drifting a few feet under him. Lucifer approached him, and took his arms from where they were extended, before turning, spinning where he stood, and sending Michael flying in a circle again, this time out over the crowd. Gadreel watched as Michael passed over him, close enough that if he stood on tiptoe and reached up, he would be able to catch the end of Michael’s black pants as he drifted overhead. 

It was Lucifer that stopped Michael’s solemn flight around the stage, too, catching his arms and turning it into a slow circle orbiting the man in white, Michael’s body tilting downwards with the momentum. Michael’s arms were steady as Lucifer used Michael’s stopping to pull himself up, hands gripping Michael’s as he pointed his feet into the air, first, before bringing them down into a bridge and landing his feet between the darker haired man’s shoulders. Michael’s leg twisted, pulling himself into a sitting position, and Lucifer’s hand braced on his shoulder, so he was doing a one-armed handstand, balanced on Michael’s back. 

Gadreel watched, not sure whether to be amused or deeply concerned for his two lover’s safety as they twisted over each other and the ribbon, legs and arms intertwining - at moments, they seemed to be the only things keeping each other from falling, Michael’s ankle caught in the curtain and Lucifer suspended by no more than his hand around Michael’s extended wrist as he turned in the air, or Michael in free fall down the slope of the ribbon, caught and swung by his thigh by Lucifer. 

It was beautiful, and it was otherworldly, and a part of Gadreel worried, because this was a thing, an experience, that he would never be able to replicate, the closeness that they shared now by risking their lives on stage. But that was not why they asked him to watch today. Apparently, they wished to share it.

As they both descended, taking a bow with their arms wrapped around each other’s waists, he still couldn’t help the crease in his brow.

The rest of the show he was sure was amazing, but it was lost in the haze of what Lucifer and Michael had done, Gadreel not quite being able to focus on the rest of the acts until he realized the lights were back on and everyone was leaving the crowded theater. 

He sat on a bench outside the changing rooms, allowed there with either a small grin or an outright laugh, depending on how he explained - either saying he knew Michael or Lucifer. He was distracted for a few seconds by two of the trapeze artists, still wearing their intricate face makeup, when he felt twin weights resting on either of his shoulders. It was Michael who eventually asked “What did you think?”, managing to sound formal as ever while wearing eyeliner and looking at Gadreel like an excited puppy. Lucifer was grinning just as badly, but trying to look suave, mangling it into a smirk.

He pushed his worries aside. They had been wonderful. “It was beautiful. I wish I had gotten to see it sooner.” He pressed a kiss, chaste and light, to both of their cheeks, careful to avoid the swirling pattern of silver still looping around Lucifer’s eye, and watched their smiles swell even more.

“This was the first time we got an act together. We wanted you to see that,” Michael said, sinking next to Gadreel on the bench and draping his arms around the other’s shoulders. 

“Sorry we didn’t tell you before. It was supposed to be a surprise.” Lucifer said flippantly, settling next to Gadreel’s other side and tossing his arm around the other as if it meant nothing. (But obviously it did. Gadreel knew Lucifer, and knew that in most cases, he would rather kill the person wronged than apologize.) His fears were dissuaded some, but he couldn’t keep the concerned look off his face, which drew both of the other’s attention. 

“Is something wrong?” Michael, this time, worriedly drawing patterns with his fingertips around the other’s shoulders. Gadreel wondered if it was worth it, to confess such petty worries. But both had listened before, and what was this relationship, odd though it may be, worth, if he couldn’t trust them even with this?

“Just - I could never compete with this. I didn’t know, and this is something of yours that I could never quite share. It- it is silly.” His voice comes out in much more of a whisper than he intended, and both Michael and Lucifer’s brows are scrunched in concern when he is done, looking at him with worry.

“We never intended for that.” Michael presses small kisses to his cheek and collarbone, looking guilty enough that Gadreel wants to take his statement back, to say that there was no fault, but instead simply leans into the motion, taking Michael’s hand and murmuring reassurances quietly, brushing his thumb down the plane of it. Lucifer simply looks guilty, reaching for Gadreel’s other hand and reaching for it, kissing the back of it like a man begging for pardon.

Gadreel shakes his head, pulling back both of his hands and offering them a smile. “It’s perfectly alright. I just - what will you do, after? Doesn’t this circus travel a lot?” He wondered, in part, worried they were going to leave him. Lucifer and Michael exchanged looks, and then small smiles.

“There’s always room for three, if you wanted to come, Dre. If you would want us…?” Apparently, this is a night of firsts for Lucifer, because he sounds more hesitant than he ever has before. It doesn’t take much consideration on Gadreel’s part - he needed a new place of employment, anyway, and he presses a kiss to Lucifer’s blonde hair, before considering a second and kissing Michael’s, too.

“I will always want you two. Don’t worry about that.” They both looked relieved at the fact, and he couldn’t help but smile. “It’s late. We should be heading back…?”

Lucifer’s grin was wicked and quick to come, and Gadreel almost felt relieved that Lucifer as he was, as he remembered, had returned, before remembering that a smile like that from a man named after the Devil could never mean anything good.

“Of course. Besides, I can think of a few more interesting uses for Michael’s flexibility.”

 


End file.
